Van Hollen wants quicker review for challenges to state laws

Wisconsin’s attorney general says it’s unfortunate that the state’s Voter ID law remains tied up in the courts. He’s also hoping lawmakers will consider changes that would allow for a swifter review process for legal challenges that hold up similar laws in the future.

The law requiring voters to show a government-issued photo ID at the polls was in effect for just one election at the start of the year, before Dane County judges in two lawsuits put it on hold. The state Supreme Court has rejected multiple requests from Attorney General JB Van Hollen to take up the cases directly, leaving them tied up in the appeals court.

Van Hollen says the reasons behind the lengthy court delay are something he would like to see addressed by the next Legislature. He says lawmakers will likely take a look at whether a “single jurist, elected by the people of a single county, can strike down the will of the people through their elected officials for the whole state.”

Van Hollen says there can be good reasons to put state laws on hold at the circuit court level, but he says it’s important to have cases such as this one heard by the Supreme Court as quickly as possible.